


Love Your Enemy

by fallenice



Category: Kanjani8 (Band), NewS (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-01-03
Updated: 2013-01-03
Packaged: 2017-11-23 12:19:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,884
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/622073
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fallenice/pseuds/fallenice
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ryo works at Storm Bookstores as a part-timer and there is this obnoxious customer he can’t stand.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Love Your Enemy

 

_Storm Bookstore_ is a three storey high building owned by five very eccentric men. Knowing in depth about the owners of the shop, though, is not very important, because this story focuses on the store’s part timer, a man named Nishikido Ryo.

 

 

***

 

 

Ryo is shelving books by himself for the day because Nino, the boss who is supposed to be working with him, has decided that finishing the next level of Dragon Quest is more important than making sure books are in the right places. So while Nino curls up on one of the sofas with his DS, Ryo is pushing a trolley filled with thick law books with one hand and a ladder with the other. When questioned, Ryo likes to claim that it is safer to use a ladder. The truth though, is that he can’t reach the top quarter of the shelves without external help.

In other words, he is short.

But try to call him that outright though and you will have hell to deal with. The last time someone tried to point out his vertical shortcomings, he was criticized from head to toe in the now infamous “Fish Lips Incident”.

Anyhow, Ryo is pushing the ladder into the Law section when it hits something hard. The (mostly emotional) shock from the impact causes him to topple half of the books from the trolley with a noticeable thud.

“What the fuck,” Ryo curses instinctively, never mind that he should have checked that there was no one on the aisle before he pushed anything in. It is that guy’s fault for sitting in a corner, anyway – law, out of everything. Who cares about law? No one ever visits the law section anyway in his opinion.

The other man looks at him, directly and possibly strangely. Ryo does not like that look; it makes him feel self conscious, as if someone is judging him.

“What are you looking at?” Ryo responded. Never look weak, it’s a lesson that he learnt from having two elder brothers at home.

“Do you know that you can be sued for harming customers?” The man stands up, adjusts his glasses and points accusingly at Ryo.

“That is because you are too unnoticeable,” Ryo retorts.

“I am going to talk to the manager right now,” The other man says and stomps away.

Ryo rolls his eyes at the guy as he walks away.

He hates this guy.

 

 

***

 

 

“You are too short so you couldn’t see him,” Akanishi Jin tells him, in between drinks the next day, when Ryo complained to his friends.

Ryo kicks him under the table.

“My pay was docked!” he insists indignantly.

“Well, since you were born this way, it can’t be helped,” Jin added helpfully.

His other friend, Yamashita Tomohisa (Yamapi), laughs and pats him on his back, “You need to keep your temper in check, Ryo-chan,”

“I don’t have a temper!” Ryo slams his glass onto the coaster.

 

 

***

 

 

It would have been fine if this was a one-off incident, but it turns out that he is dead wrong. Ryo spots, to his annoyance, the law-shelf-incident guy chatting enthusiastically with one of his other bosses (Sho) about stock market fluctuations at the entrance of the bookstore when he reports for work a few days later.

Ryo makes a rude noise and demands the two of them to let him pass because the sun is “damned fucking hot”. Sho and the annoying guy make way for him and move into the bookstore to continue their, in Ryo’s opinion, stupid conversation. He is mumbling complains to himself when he comes face to face with one Matsumoto Jun.

Ryo blames everything on the stupid-bespectacled guy and puts him on top of his hate list when Jun makes him do extra work that day.

“If you have the time to complain, I am guessing you have time to do more work,” were Jun’s exact words.

 

 

***

 

 

Ryo performs at pubs in the evenings.

He likes to think of this as his “real” job. It’s not that he hates his job at the bookstore though, it’s just that when he plays his guitar and sings to an audience (no matter how few they are), the music makes him feel alive, makes his life worth living.

He does, sometimes, wonder if it is worth it when he looks at the people around him with good jobs and happy families.

Sometimes it feels like the guitar is the only thing he has.

 

 

***

 

 

“Ryo, could you pass me the books which I have reserved for Katou Shigeaki?” Sho asks him as he is walking towards the bathroom another couple of days later.

Ryo remembers these books very well. The day before, Sho has made him run around the bookstore to look for books with topics ranging from politics to cats. Ryo thought that it was an unnecessary workload since he was actually assigned cashier duty that day and would ideally have sat at the counter all day instead of running around. It didn’t help that half of the list of books were in the top quarter of the shelves, which ~~Ryo was too short to reach~~ , so Ryo needs to drag the ladder around to reach them.

Ryo almost drops the books when he realizes that this Katou Shigeaki person is the same rude bastard that has been making his life miserable (he likes to think that he is not exaggerating, of course). It appears that this Katou person remembers him too because he frowns immediately.

Ryo avoids eye contact and ends up noticing that Katou is wearing a blazer with his tie slightly loosened, revealing an undone top button. It annoys Ryo a little that his eyes can’t seem to gravitate from the little patch of skin that peeks out.

Such a show off, Ryo concludes to himself and rolls his eyes at Katou. No, he was not checking Katou out. He is not thinking about how good the other man looks in his suit.

Sho, on the other hand, looks scandalized by his employee’s behaviour but before he can even comment on it, Ryo dumps the books roughly in Katou’s arms. The customer promptly loses his balance at the sudden weight of the books.

Ryo laughs out loud.

Katou stares back at him judgingly (or what Ryo interprets as a judging look). Ryo hates that holier-than-thou stare (his interpretation) that Katou is trying to give him. So what if you can read all these books, he thinks to himself while Sho tries to apologize and attempts to make Ryo apologize as well. An apology? Never.

Shige picks himself up and mutters something unintelligible to Ryo before dragging his books to the cashier. Ryo makes sure his laughter is extra loud when this Katou trips over his own books again.

Serves him right, he thinks gleefully.

And no, he is not observing the way Katou looks when he bends over to pick up the toppled books.

In the midst of his laugher though, Ryo does not fail to notice Nino is standing behind one of the shelves, his hand covering his mouth and suppressing his laughter. Their eyes meet and Ryo does not miss the evil glint in Nino’s eyes.

 

 

***

 

 

Another day at work.

Another day of stupid Katou.

“It’s $35.25,” Shige says and places a fifty on the desk. Ryo is doing cashier duty today because his usual boss who is supposed to be on cashier duty (Ohno) has taken the week off to go fishing. Ryo hopes that he won’t get tanned again; it is going to be difficult to locate him in the darkness of some of the bookshelves.

“And you need to return me $14.75,” Katou says impatiently.

Ryo thinks he has never seen someone this arrogant in his life as he returns – more accurately shoves – the change into Shige’s hands.

“It’s a dollar short,” Katou replies matter-of-factly.

Ryo thinks Katou is really fucking annoying.

 

 

***

 

 

Ryo bitches about Katou again to Yamapi at one of their favourite pubs. He hasn’t expected Yamapi to be sympathetic to him but it irks Ryo to see Yamapi looking very amused at his whines. Ryo resists the temptation to pour his drink over Yamapi’s head and chooses, instead, to satisfy his displeasure with a glare. Yamapi laughs even more heartily and wraps his arm around Ryo’s shoulders.

“You haven’t learnt from your past relationships,” he says.

“As if you know better than me,”

Before Yamapi can respond though, Jin calls to say that his pregnant wife has whims and wants him to stay at home or she will divorce him. After putting down the phone, they proceed to inform the bartender that Jin will be paying for their bill the next time he comes along.

The duo makes sure to order the most expensive drinks on the list before they leave.

 

 

***

 

 

“Your hair is ugly,” Ryo tells Katou when he sees him yet another day at the bookstore.

Katou snorts back at him.

“At least I am taller than you,” he says, before taking his books (this time, some novels) to the cashier. Ryo hates how Katou seems to be getting along with the usually silent Ohno as well. More than just getting along, the two of them appear to be engaging in an absorbing conversation about fishing and Ryo is quite sure this is the most animated he has seen Ohno in days.

“If you can hear what they are saying, you are too close,” a voice behind him says. The owner of the voice kisses the back of his shoulder as a concluding gesture and Ryo jumps away in shock, glaring at the culprit – who turns out to be none other than Nino.

“Don’t scare me like this!”

Nino only laughs.

Jun comes by at the exact moment to smack Ryo’s head and passes him a list of stocks that he needs to take since he is “free enough to go around eavesdropping on people’s conversation”.

Stupid Katou, Ryo thinks.

 

 

***

 

 

The funny thing is, Shige does get a haircut the next time he visits.

And Ryo is proud of himself because now Shige actually looks decent. No, he is not thinking about how Shige changed his hairstyle because of _his_ suggestion. He is just glad for everyone’s poor eyes that Shige looks more normal now. It also has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that the new hair shows Ryo how pretty Shige’s neck is without all the excess hair around it.

Anyhow, this time, though, instead of the boring non-fiction section or the not-as-boring fiction section, Shige goes straight to the music section to look at music scores and some band’s biography.

Ryo tries to explain away the slight leap that he feels in his heart when Shige picks up works by his favourite bands as him feeling angry for his bands having a stupid fan like Shige.

And no, he is not stalking Shige.

And he is calling Katou “Shige” in his head because it’s easier to pronounce. That is all.

 

 

***

 

 

Ryo gets an invitation to play in a new pub, somewhere near the bookstore.

He sits on the chair that the owners have prepared for him and does some final tunings on his guitar before he begins, interspersing his own songs between popular tunes. Besides this being the only thing that he can consistently master, Ryo kind of likes to hide behind the shield of the music. Music, as always, comforts him.

However, his source of comfort is disrupted when he spots a familiar face in the crowd. His heart jumps at the recognition, and he is quite sure that he has played the next few notes wrongly when he confirms who is among his audience that day. Ryo tries to attribute this emotional turbulence to the fact that he has not expected Shige to show up and no, he is not thinking of how to impress Shige by playing more of his self composed tunes than usual.

His mental monologue, combined with his favourite soothing song, does nothing to stop his heart from beating wildly, though. Ryo resorts to pretending that he doesn’t exist so that he can at least not screw up the performance completely. It wasn’t easy.

“You sound good,” Shige tells him afterward.

Ryo rolls his eyes and ignores the fluttering in his heart before he brags, “Of course, “

Their conversation ends there.

He doesn’t understand the lingering feeling he feels in his heart as he watches Shige turn and leave.

It’s all part of the hate, right?

 

 

***

 

 

During their next meet-up, Yamapi and Jin complain about how Ryo is being snappier than usual. That is because you guys are stupider than usual, Ryo has responded. Halfway through talking about his pregnant wife though, Jin turns to look at Ryo.

“How are you and your Shige?”

Ryo thanks God that he has swallowed his drink just before Jin opened his big fat mouth. But before he can recover from his shock, Yamapi adds on to the fire.

“You are right, Jin. I haven’t heard him talk about Shige today, did you guys fight?”

“Don’t they fight every day? Fighting is their way of showing love! ” Jin interrupts, mouth filled with snacks.

“He just hasn’t been coming to the bookstore recently and I am glad…”

“Aww,” Pi and Jin cooed at the same time.

“No wonder Ryo-chan is so miserable recently,” Yamapi adds to the fervent nods coming from Jin.

“I am _not_ miserable! I am _happy_ that he is not around.”

Yamapi does that condescending wrap around Ryo’s shoulders again, “Keep telling yourself that.”

 

 

***

 

 

“We have a new part-time worker for the next few weeks to help out with the end of year work load!” Sho announces out of the blue one day.

Aiba (another one of the bosses) cheers the loudest. Ohno, as usual, doesn’t look like he is awake. Ryo catches Nino, with his head on Ohno’s lap, exchanging knowing looks with Jun and alarm bells ring in his head. It can’t be worse than last year’s right? After all, all that last year’s helper did was read _shoujo mangas_ all day at the comics section while Ryo did all the work.

Ryo’s jaw drops when the new part-timer introduces himself.

It is the accursed Katou Shigeaki.

 

 

***

 

 

Ryo and Shige are quickly assigned pair work in the store room for the next two weeks and Ryo is pretty sure Jun and Nino both had a part to play in this arrangement.

Shige, like the stupid attention whore he is (in Ryo’s opinion, at least), has his to-do list highlighted, annotated and is already looking around the storeroom to see how he is going to go about sorting the new books. Ryo just leans against the wall, trying to muster a haughty face as if he doesn’t care. If Shige wants to do everything, he can do it. But if he does it wrongly though, Ryo will be relentless.

The problem that Ryo quickly faces though is that Shige is good at what he is doing. He knows which books belong to which boxes once he figures out the organization scheme and Ryo becomes annoyed that Shige’s able to check off the books and put them away faster than Ryo himself. Ryo stomps his feet around angrily after a while because he can’t find a single problem that he can nitpick about.

“Could you at least help with carrying the books?” Shige finally snaps.

_That’s kind of hot,_ Ryo thinks to himself but promptly suppresses the thought. Shige is just an irritating person, he reminds himself.

 

 

***

 

 

Ryo finds Shige in the storeroom earlier than him the next day, reading a book under weak lighting about Che Guevara. Ryo flicks the light switch on as he enters.

“You are already very annoying, you will be even more if you end up blind.”

“When Che Guevara was plotting a revolution in his home country Cuba, he barely had electricity!” Shige retorts back.

“Isn’t Che Guevara Argentinean?”

Shige makes a surprised noise and flips through the biography section of the book he is reading. He apologizes quickly for his mistake.

Ryo smirks.

 

 

***

 

 

“You are kind of awkward,” Shige finally tells him by the middle of the week.

“Says you,” Ryo replies; obviously he needs to keep up the snark, “And what the fuck is the collective action problem?”

Shige walks over to him and grabs the book that Ryo is trying to sort out from him, “This book belongs to the environment section and the collective action problem is a phenomenon where nobody ends up solving a common concern because they think someone else will solve it,”

Their shoulders brush by accident as Shige ratters on and Ryo feels something like an electric shock running through his veins.

“Stop trying to be a smartass,” he says in response.

 

 

***

 

 

“I like Red Hot Chili Peppers too,” Shige peeps over Ryo’s shoulder and says at the beginning of the second week when they are sorting a box of music scores. Ryo jumps away from Shige to try to calm his wildly beating heart, caused by the other man’s closeness. Shige, in turn, stares at him weirdly – like the first time they met – and Ryo feels violated by the stare.

“You dimwit, what do you know about good music?” He snaps instead.

Shige shrinks away, saying softly, “Why do you have to be so confrontational all the time?”

To be honest, if Ryo asks himself, he doesn’t know. He wants to talk to Shige, but he doesn’t understand why he can’t seem to sustain a proper conversation and why every time he opens his damned mouth, it has to be an insult. Half the time he doesn’t mean them, but they _still_ come out.

Ryo is not good with emotions and the like, but he knows that he doesn’t like the way Shige stays quiet the whole time after his comment and how he dragged his feet out to another room with two boxes of books to sort out after lunch.

 

 

***

 

 

Ryo does not see Shige at all at work for the next day. He assumed that Shige is sick until he goes for lunch break and notices that Shige is actually working at the cashier with Ohno. When they manage to somehow make eye contact, Shige looks away so quickly that it makes Ryo feel like his heart is being pierced by a million spears.

When Ryo leaves work for the pub that day, all he can play are heartbreaking songs about how life is temporal like cigarette smoke.

 

 

***

 

 

It is not long before his bosses notice that something is wrong between the two of them. Aiba takes the direct approach and asks him what is wrong when he enters the building for work by the middle of the second week. Ryo tells him to shut up and mind his own business instead. With the things that come out of his mouth, it’s a miracle that Ryo hasn’t been fired from the bookstore yet. In any case, Aiba does take the cue and walks away, muttering something about how he should try to patch the two of them back together.

“Don’t you dare,” Ryo shouts at Aiba’s retreating figure.

He can feel Sho’s glare from the second level.

When Ryo takes a toilet break and meets Ohno in the washroom, the older man gives him a strange look and tells him, “Good luck.”

On his way back to the storeroom, Ryo trips. He looks up to realize that Nino has stuck a foot out from where he has been playing on his DS on the sofa, and Ryo, in his distraction, has tripped and fell over.

“It’s for Shige,” Nino tells him, without even looking away from his Super Mario game.

It’s not like Ryo isn’t feeling guilty and the world should stop making him sound like he is the greatest bastard in the world. It’s just that he never knows how and when to apologize. And a small part of him is worried about what happens if he is not forgiven. He knows he is kind of being a coward but …

His thoughts are interrupted by Jun standing in front of him.

“Katou’s phone number,” Jun says, slipping something into Ryo’s pocket, “You guys go sort it out,”

Before Ryo can ask any questions, Jun has already strutted off.

 

 

***

 

 

“Since you already have his number, you really should tell Shige that you are sorry,” Yamapi tells him over drinks. Jin nods in agreement while sending a text message from his phone, probably to inform his wife of his whereabouts.

Ryo stares at his two friends like they have grown a second head.

“Do it or I will do it for you!” Jin says enthusiastically after being done with the message and reaches out for Ryo’s phone which is placed on the table. Ryo’s slightly quicker reflexes reach for his phone first and he holds on to it possessively. Jin pouts in response and nudges Yamapi to help him out.

Ryo’s hold on his phone tightens.

“Give us the phone or I will tickle you,” Pi threatens, and leans towards Ryo. Ryo instinctively leans back from the two other men as they gather closer.

“Okay I get it, I will text him when I get home!”

 

 

***

**From:** Ryo  
 **To:** Shige  
This is Ryo. Em, sorry

After sending the message though, Ryo gets anxious. He tries to watch television, but ends up staring at the phone screen instead of concentrating on the program that is on television. He stands up to grab a drink and jumps when the phone vibrates on the coffee table while he is away. He runs to his phone, only to be disappointed as it’s just a message from Jin, whining about his wife. He types a quick remark about how it’s his own fault for having too much sex when the phone vibrates with a phone call in his hand.

“Apologizing through a text message?” the voice greets him from the phone.

Ryo’s heart jumps when he recognizes the voice over the phone. Shige sounds deeper than he usually does and it makes Ryo’s heart do a weird dance, on top of being tongue tied. There is silence for a while before Shige continues, “Do you have anything else to say?”

“Do you want to come over?”

 

 

***

 

 

The thing is, he doesn’t know what to do with Shige and is actually regretting extending that invitation. What was he thinking anyway when he said those words? And what is he going to say when he actually meets Shige? He paces around the house in anxiety when he sees his guitar perched against his bedroom wall.

Ryo finds himself reaching for his trusty guitar and strums randomly at first, playing some bars. Then his fingers slowly relax into a familiar melody. He is getting transported to his own world when the rude sound of his door bell interrupts the small peace. Shige makes himself comfortable on the sofa after Ryo lets him in, while the smaller man stands and stares awkwardly at Shige. Ryo’s initial trepidation returns full force.

“Do… you have something to drink?” Shige breaks the silence – again.

Oh, yes. Drinks. Drinks are good.

When Ryo remerges from the kitchen with two glasses of water, Shige asks, “Could you play what you were playing just now?”

Wordlessly, he picks up the guitar he has left standing besides the sofa and plays. He doesn’t end up playing the tune that he played earlier on because his fingers end up playing another song.

_“But once again the instructions from my brain unconsciously turned it into a code,”_

Shige’s hand rests onto Ryo’s playing hand at that line and Ryo stops to look up at the other man.

They are so close.

Ryo doesn’t know who leans in first but their lips meet and part. Ryo’s tongue engages Shige’s (or was it the other way around) in a dance, twirling around each other and letting the wet motions convey the things that words cannot.

When they finally part, Shige bounces away quickly, grabs his bag and leaves.

Ryo watches his leaving figure blankly, only to be jerked awake from his daze by the loud bang of the shutting door. He later realizes with a start that his fingers have been touching his own lips and that he has been recalling the taste of Shige on his tongue and how much he liked it.

How much he liked it.

He liked kissing Shige.

 

 

***

 

 

Shige walks past Ryo quickly the next day at work, actively avoiding him. Instead of feeling angry though, Ryo feels disappointed when Shige utterly refused to acknowledge his presence the whole day, especially since he has stayed up the whole night thinking about how Shige’s lips felt against his own.

Ryo wants to tell himself that everything he is feeling at that moment is due to hatred, but it is clear even to him that no one kisses someone they hate.

Ryo wonders if the gods are playing with him when he opens up what he is supposed to sort out that day to find a whole box filled with books about relationships. When he is sure that no one is going to come by the storeroom anytime soon, he flips the first one open and attempts some quiz (which he tries to convince himself that he is doing to kill time) to ascertain whether he is in love or not.

_Congratulations, a score of 40 and above means that you are in love! Hurry, confess to the other person before it is too late!_

_I am in love?_ He thinks to himself. _I am in love?_

 

 

***  
  


 

The songs Ryo sings in the pubs start to mean different things to him. He starts to really think about the skipped heart beats and countless sleepless nights that the songs go on and on about. He used to think that they were sappy tropes, but he is beginning to feel that there might be some basis of truth in them.

Even the pub owner tells him that he sounds different and that it’s a good change.

 

 

***

 

 

He still hasn’t really figured anything out a couple of days later and is quite sure that all his bosses are judging him. Nino clicks his tongue at him over lunch while eating _onigiri_ specially prepared by Jun. It turns out that everyone had a share of Jun-cooked food that day except for Ryo because he needs to man up before he deserves to eat Jun’s cooking. Sho just pats him on his back while Aiba keeps trying to find opportunities to talk to him.

The punch line though comes from Ohno who tells him, in the washroom after lunch, “Confess to Shige now.”

 

***

 

 

Ryo drinks more than usual when he hangs out with Pi and Jin the next time. The good thing about the alcohol is that he feels slightly more at peace with his internal conflicts. The bad thing is he has a loose tongue when he is drunk.

“Who the hell kisses someone and then runs away anyway,” he rambles to his two shocked friends.

“You guys kissed?” They exclaim in unison.

“And then he ran away,”” Ryo replies, not denying anything.

Yamapi and Jin exchange fist pumps and lean towards Ryo, desperate for more information.

“Was he good?” Yamapi asked first.

“Did you guys do the thing with the tongue?” Jin asked, “Actually, have you guys slept together?”

“Shut up, both of you.”

 

 

***

 

 

Ryo wakes up to a text from Yamapi the next day telling him: “You should confess to Shige, he seems interested in you,” and Ryo wants to throw his phone against the wall.

But he does _finally_ get a chance to be alone with Shige that day, courtesy of Aiba. When Ryo enters the building, Aiba wraps his arms around Ryo and whispers, loud enough for Nino, who is gaming, to turn his head in their direction,

”I will assign you work with Shige today, okay? Confess to him! I will give you all the moral support you need!”

Ryo frowns at Aiba’s over enthusiasm but accepts the offer anyway. There is nothing but silence between him and Shige in the storeroom and soon enough, the silence becomes too much for Ryo to bear.

“Why did you run away?” Straight to the point is good.

Shige stares at him. It makes Ryo even more frustrated.

“Okay, I don’t understand this, but every time I see you my heart beats super fast and I don’t know how to deal with it, so I say stupid things,“ Ryo hides his face in his hands as he continues, “Okay, I always say stupid things, but the thing is, you are making me feel things that I don’t usually feel and it’s new to me and I am confused, okay,”

Ryo shifts his feet and bit his lips as Shige throws him an undecipherable look.

“In normal human language, that would be ‘I like you’,” Shige tells him.

“In my language it’s this, and don’t you dare tell me that you don’t want it,” Ryo replies and leans over to capture Shige’s lips in a kiss.

Shige responds.

And doesn’t run away this time.

**Author's Note:**

> Betated by: Isa. For: mini_ryo 2012


End file.
